US Capitol insurgency seeks “ready to kill” asylum in Belarus | Politics News

Evan Neumann fled the US in the form of a business trip and traveled through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

An American receiving criminal charges for his involvement in the January 6 U.S. Capitol riots is seeking asylum in Belarus, a national state television reported on Monday as a sign of rising tensions between the former Soviet state and the United States.

Evan Neumann, 48, of California, mocked and shouted at U.S. Capitol police on Jan. 6 before putting a gas mask on his face and threatening an officer, saying police would “overtake” the crowd, according to U.S. prosecutors.

But in an interview with the state television channel Belarus 1, Neumann dismissed the allegations, including attacks, obstructions and other crimes, saying he was being politically persecuted.

“I don’t think I have committed any crime,” Neumann said, according to a voiceover from the notes of his Belarusian 1 interview. “One of the accusations was very offensive; he accuses me of hitting a cop. He has no reason to. ‘

Hundreds of followers of former President Donald Trump attack The U.S. Capitol is expected to postpone the January 6 congressional proceedings to secure Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. The events have become a controversial dividing line between Republicans and Democrats in U.S. politics.

It is a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives headed by Democrats researching Trump and his Republican allies used chemical sprays, tasers, and improvised weapons to allegedly promote the mafia. Police responded with tear gas and riot police. They have charged more than 650 people actions on Jan. 6, he ordered Nuemann’s arrest in March, according to the FBI.

The Belarus 1 channel promoted excerpts from a conversation with Neumann on Sunday and announced that it would broadcast the full version on Wednesday. Neumann spoke English, but was dubbed in Russian for the broadcast, The Associated Press reported.

The FBI has reported that Neumann stood in front of a police barricade wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat as a group of Trump-backed riots tried to force past officers, according to documents examined by Al Jazeera.

“I’m ready to die, right?” Prosecutors told Neumann to police.

The Washington Metropolitan Police video camera footage shows Neumann and others entering a metal barricade in line with officers trying to push the crowd back, before punching two agents before hitting the barricade.

Investigators who identified Neumann said they were a family friend after someone called an FBI news line after Neumann’s name and his birthplace in Mill Valley, California. He was charged in a U.S. federal criminal complaint, including accurate images of a body camera fighting Neumann police and cell phone data that showed he was inside the Capitol building.

Neumann told Belarus 1 that his photo had been added to the FBI’s wish list, and then left the country on the pretext of a business trip. Neuman, who owns a bag manufacturing business, traveled to Italy in March and then to Switzerland, Germany and Poland. When he arrived in Ukraine he spent several months there.

He said he had decided to cross into neighboring Belarus illegally after Ukrainian security forces noticed surveillance. “It’s awesome. It’s political harassment, ”Neumann told the television channel.

Belarusian border guards arrested the American when he tried to cross into Belarus, and sought asylum in mid-August. Belarus has no extradition agreement with the United States.

The U.S. embassy in Belarus rejected the AP’s request for comment. A U.S. Justice Department official said the DOJ would not comment on “whether or not arrest warrants exist for foreign governments.”

Belarus 1 TV anchor described Neumann as “a humble American whose shops were burned by members of the Black Lives Matter movement, who were seeking justice, asking uncomfortable questions, but he lost almost everything and was being persecuted by the US government.”

In a brief preface to the interview, the Belarusian 1 journalist also said that “something” had made Neumann “flee the country of freedom of freedom and storytelling” – an apparent rejection of the US, which has imposed numerous sanctions on Belarus for its humanity. violations of rights and violent repression of dissent.

Belarus was shaken for months protests after election officials gave a sixth term to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election, which the opposition and the West have denounced as fraudulent.

The government of Lukaxenko a violent repression against the protesters, arresting more than 35,000 people and beating thousands of them hard. The repression sparked international outrage.